Breakthrough for lung transplants
Researchers at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute have developed a way of solving a significant issue surrounding donor organs — matching blood types.
The researchers successfully converted lungs from a type A donor into type O by removing the antigens associated with the donor blood type and making it compatible with recipients of any blood type.
While type A, B, and AB blood and tissue contain antigens that may trigger an immune response in people with a different blood type, type O lacks antigens. For this reason, people with type O blood are considered universal donors.
According to Ars Technica, lead author of the research and head of the Cypel Lab at the University of Toronto, Marcelo Cypel, had previously developed the ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) process.
EVLP is essentially a process by which donated lungs are protected in a plastic-domed environment while doctors feed it nutrients and oxygen.
According to the paper published by Cypel and his colleagues, the research was designed to study the safety and preclinical efficacy of using enzymes to remove A antigen (A-Ag) from human donor lungs using ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP).
The enzymes in question are FpGalNAc deacetylase and FpGalactosaminidase, which, when used in combination, “have been described to effectively convert group A (ABO-A) red blood cells (RBCs) to group O (ABO-O)”.
The study found that the treatment reduced antibody binging, complement deposition, and antibody-mediated injury, meaning that type A donor lung antibodies can be depleted with EVLP treatment.
While the study is just a proof of concept, the researchers behind it believe that the process can be expanded to improve organ allocation fairness.
The research is the latest of several scientific projects to reduce the organ donor waiting list. Two previous projects saw genetically-modified pig organs successfully transplanted into human recipients.
In January 2021, a team of doctors from the University of Maryland School of Medicine achieved a world first by successfully transplanting a genetically modified pig heart into a human patient.
Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Centre say the procedure demonstrated that a genetically modified animal heart could function in the human body without immediate rejection.
Before that, Surgeons from the University of Alabama (UAB) at Birmingham successfully attached a genetically-altered pig kidney to a human.
The operation saw the kidneys transferred to the abdomen of a 57-year-old brain-dead man whose own kidneys were entirely removed.
The study showed that genetically-altered kidneys could work as a replacement for human kidneys. However, the researchers said that some improvements could still be made to certain parts of the procedure.
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